Saint John the Evangelist Enthroned Trampling the Vices

Orsanmichele, in the middle of Florence, began as a grain market and became a church, and each of the city's guilds claimed a place there for an image of its patron saint. The silk guild, the Arte della Seta, chose John the Evangelist, and this panel was painted for the guild inside the building around 1375 to 1380.

John sits enthroned with his book, and under his feet lie three small figures, the vices he has overcome. Above him Christ appears among cherubim and seraphim, the highest ranks of angels, holding a book marked with Alpha and Omega, the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet. The predella below shows the end of John's own story, his ascension into heaven.

The panel was taken down around 1402 and reached the Accademia only in 1982. The guild kept its saint on the building all the same. In 1515 it set up a bronze John by the sculptor Baccio da Montelupo in its niche on the outside wall, where a replica stands today and the original is kept in the Orsanmichele museum upstairs.